U.S. issues upbeat report on human rights at home

The sun rises over the detention facility at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A U.S. report notes Obama’s pledge to close Guantanamo and ban the use of waterboarding.

The U.S. government, which has long scrutinized other countries' human rights records, has turned its gaze inward — evaluating its own performance in a largely upbeat report to the United Nations.

The review, submitted last month, is the first by the United States under a new system in which the U.N. Human Rights Council will analyze the record of every country in the world body.

Representatives of U.S.-based human rights groups welcomed the report, but some said it glossed over problems such as the detention of prisoners at the U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Others, however, said the U.S. review went too far in identifying some practices as abusive. Arizona's Republican Gov. Jan Brewer said it was "downright offensive" that her state's new immigration law was mentioned in a report to a council "whose members include such renowned human rights 'champions' as Cuba and Libya."

The George W. Bush administration had shunned the U.N. council because of the membership of repressive regimes. The Obama administration has reversed course, arguing that it is better to work from within to strengthen the U.N. human rights system.

But U.S. human rights observance would have been scrutinized by the U.N. whether or not Washington was a member of the council.

The body will consider the U.S. record at a hearing in November that will take into account the American report as well as comments from U.N. bodies, countries and nongovernmental groups. The process, known as the Universal Periodic Review, is done for each nation.

"It has legitimized and strengthened our ability to evaluate the human rights of other countries, because we take seriously what that means at home," said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Some, however, argued that the report should have gone further. They said it did not devote attention to human rights abuses in U.S. prisons or immigration detention centers, or acknowledge that the Obama administration lacks a clear plan for closing Guantanamo.

"We are disappointed that it does not reflect more serious consideration of the specific concerns and recommendations made by civil society groups during the consultation process," said Ted Stahnke of Human Rights First.

The U.S. report notes steps taken by the Obama administration, from overhauling health care to reducing sentencing disparities for possession of powder and crack cocaine.

The report dedicates several paragraphs to post-9/11 security measures, noting Obama's pledge to close Guantanamo and ban the use of waterboarding to get information from detainees.

The mention of Arizona's immigration law is brief — a paragraph noting that the measure "has generated significant attention and debate" and is facing a court challenge.

Brewer wrote last week to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressing "indignation."

"The idea of our own American government submitting the duly enacted laws of a state … to 'review' by the United Nations is internationalism run amok," Brewer wrote.

Any recommendations issued at the November session on the U.S. human rights situation will be nonbinding.